A VOYAGE TO INDIA. 137 



and as I have frequently seen fish in their cavities ap- 

 parently half digested, I cannot but consider them as 

 proper stomachs; nor indeed is it a greater paradox in 

 zoology that an animal should possess many indepen- 

 dent stomachs, than that the strange carniverous vege- 

 table, the saracinea, should make use of its leaves appa- 

 rently for a similar purpose. 



From the centre of this group of stomachs depends a 

 little cord, never exceeding the fourth of an inch in 

 thickness, and often forty times as long as the body. 



The size of the Portuguese man-of-war varies from 

 half an inch to six inches in length. When it is in 

 motion, the sail is accommodated to the force of the 

 breeze, and the elongated neck is curved upward, giving 

 to the animal a form strongly resembling the little glass 

 swans which we sometimes see swimming in goblets. 



It is not the form, however, whieh constitutes the 

 chief beauty of this little navigator. The lower part of 

 the body and the neck are devoid of all colour, except a 

 faint irridescence in reflected lights, and they are so 

 perfectly transparent that the finest print is not ob- 

 scured when viewed through them. The back becomes 

 gradually tinged as we ascend, with the finest and most 

 delicate blue that can be imagined ; the base of the sail 

 equals the purest sky in depth and beauty of tint ; the 

 summit is of the most splendid red, and the central part 

 is shaded by the gradual intermixture of these colours 

 through all the intermediate grades of purples. Drawn 

 12* 



